Sometimes the public doesn't KNOW who the professionals are!

I had an interesting conversation the other day with a home owner. He wasn't necessarily looking to sell right now, but he did have a good question.

This guy was curious about how he could KNOW whether his agent was a "good" one or not...after a joke or two about how he could be guaranteed to get a "good" one by hiring me we talked about the things that might make an agent a "good" one.

While he thought that the bottom line was how fast and how much, I told him that you'll really have no way to KNOW that ahead of time. If you hire someone you are certain can sell your house in two weeks and they don't get it done in 30 days, does that make the agent a "bad" agent"? He agreed that wasn't necessarily the truth.

So as we explored the idea of what made an agent a "good" one, he pretty much put forth these things that would be important to him, as a seller:

1. Track Record: what has the agent done in THIS market...average Days on Market and average LIST TO SELL PRICE.

3. Explanation: You've got to explain what's going on during the process...and explain why NOTHING is going on if that's the case, and tell me what we can do to get something going if nothing is happening, even if it hurts.

4. Unafraid to "consult" with me...look, I hired you as a professional and I NEED your professional assessment at every step of the way. It's not always going to be easy but if it's my pink and purple checkerboard wall paper in the living room that is causing buyers to pass me by, tell me how to handle it. I may not agree but you also need to provide the "other side of the coin" as to how much NOT doing something about it will cost me.

5. Be honest/dependable. Sounds pretty easy, but you'd be suprised how rare that is.

Later that night, I was browsing some properties in the MLS and I came across an agent, selling their own home and came across this photo:

I wondered what message that photo sent to a perspective seller if even this agent tried to go FSBO at some point. Maybe I'm reading the image wrong but it did make me wonder.

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